Passenger bus travel to get cheaper? Check out Nitin Gadkari’s plan

Union minister for shipping, road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Friday said that his ministry is proposing to extend concession...

According to him, the road and rail connectivity to the port would be further strengthened. (Source: IE)

Union minister for shipping, road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Friday said that his ministry is proposing to extend concession to passenger buses on toll gate fees across the country.

Gadkari, while addressing mediapersons in Bhubaneswar on the occasion of the completion of two years by the NDA government at the Centre, said that his ministry has given a proposal to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the ministry of finance to work out modalities to extend a rebate to passenger buses at toll gates. “I can only extend such benefits to passenger buses if there would be a Cabinet decision, as the matter involves the PMO and the finance ministry,” he said while mentioning that bus operators of Odisha and other states had met him and demanded concession.

Speaking about the achievements of the NDA government in two years, Gadkari said that a new port would be developed at Paradip with a capacity of 150 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). Stating that the capacity of the port would be enhanced to 325 mtpa by 2025, he said Paradip port would be the gateway to eastern India.

According to him, the road and rail connectivity to the port would be further strengthened.

The Union minister said that the waterway on the Brahmani river would be expedited to evacuate coal from Odisha’s coal belt as Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) is planning to increase its production to 300 mtpa.

Stating that logistics costs in India are as high as 18% as against 8% in China, Gadkari said that his ministry is making an endeavour to bring down logistics costs to 12% by developing a multi-modal transport system.